A lack of student records up to this point suggests that his early schooling might have come from a tutor or governess, a form of education still fairly common among wealthy families of the time and all the more likely in Parsons’ case since he seemed to suffer from a form of dyslexia. (p. 44)

1929: moved (with Forman) to John Muir High School. (p. 47)

(Dates not given) Attended Brown Military Academy for Boys, San Diego.

“He blew up the toilets in the whole goddamn place,” remembered Jeanne Forman, Ed Forman’s future wife, and was promptly sent home again.(p. 47)

1931: Parsons and Forman left John Muir High School (p. 57)

(Date not given) Attended University School, Pasadena.

The school’s headmaster and proprietor was Russell Richardson, a passionate liberal who regularly attended meetings of the American Federation of Labor as well as the visiting British philosopher Bertrand Russell’s lectures on such subjects as “Is Monogamy Doomed?” Richardson was a keen proselytizer for new educational methods. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 1929, Richardson praised the rebellious mind-sets of his pupils: “These young people have immense energy that will do great things if properly directed…Their attitude of not accepting everything in the classrooms with blind faith, their questioning of all values, means a closer contact wit the currents of life than could possibly have been true of a previous day.” For Richardson, “the personality of the teacher counts for more than the methods he uses” and “the best kind of development is self-development.” Richardson’s teaching was not conventional, but it suited the young Parsons perfectly. (p. 57)